Strange Behavior *Finished*

[Bee]

The deal had gone sour at some point, though she was not sure exactly where. Mnem was in a small, nondescript office in the business district of Capital City, attempting to negotiate a working relationship with with a contact with whom she had been distantly associated in Yarrow Gardens.

It had taken ages to track him down, running through her books of contacts and catching up on their whereabouts and activities. This particular rat had been quite adept at getting her supplies from the Lowlands, quietly and quickly, and Mnem had been willing to pay a pretty penny in order to avoid making the trip herself. Dealing with her network had been so time-consuming that after a while she took to avoiding unnecessary trips like a deadly disease.

But now the rat wanted too much. He seemed to sense that Mnem was not as well-connected here as she was in Gardens, and that she had to keep a relatively low profile. And while what he demanded was within her price range--barely--his smug little smile and refusal to bow to her whims irked her so utterly that she ended up making quits of the bargain.

It was easy to bully the rat into keeping quiet about the fact that she had been there at all, and after she felt confident that the miserable creature wasn't going to do something stupid, she strode out of the building, where Minh was waiting.

"We need cheesecake, darling," she bit out, "and if you would like be a good kitty and bring me the heads of a few ra--"

The words died as her sensitive hearing picked up the words "West Lakes Firm," and her eyes fell on the group in the distance that had spoken it. She wondered for a moment why that would catch her attention, but then--Kelasia. The little skunk had worked for a shipping firm, she'd said. West Lakes.

Shipping firm.

Mnem nearly laughed with delight. When one door closed....

"New plan, Minh," she announced. "We go with them."

[seraaches]

Shinrai’s ears went up, swiveling in instinctive interest in the new surroundings. Of course, he hadn’t the foggiest where they were headed, but… ”Which office exactly are you looking for?” The stallion turned to glance at Darrien, ear coming around with the movement of his head. A familiar voice caught his ear, and his head whipped around to search the crowded streets almost frantically. No one, despite the intenseness of his hunting grey-green eyes, was recognizable. After another moment of unease, his large frame relaxed slightly again. He didn’t need this kind of stress. Sometimes, he would almost swear the two females were stalking him.

He blinked, and glanced back at the superstitious canine again; he hoped he hadn’t missed the Selkie Lakes resident’s response. Despite the fact that his gaze was back on his companions, the small, triangular ears were flicking about swiftly; silent testament of his near paranoia.

[Dark]

Minh had been working on a rather intense crossword puzzle when Mnemosyne burst out of the building in a tightly controlled, frothing fit—apparently things with her former supplier hadn’t gone well. Nothing a piece of cheesecake couldn’t fix, though.

She perked up delightedly as Mnemosyne went on to give her what basically amounted to express permission to go beat the miserable little rat into a bloody pulp. Not to be mistaken as some base, primitive feline ruled by her instincts or anything—because she was fairly certain she’d feel the same if she’d been born a canine or some other creature—but rats made the most delightful squeal when cornered, and they always put up a decent struggle.

But, wait— “We go with them.”

Damn it. Mnemosyne should know better than to let her hopes up like that, only to turn around and ruthlessly squash them nanoseconds later. Her research hadn’t been showing the bests of results lately and a bit of therapeutic brawling would have done her a world of good.

Then she spotted Shinrai and promptly forgot about her previous woe. Fuck, yes.

[Bee]

Mnem smiled slyly to see Minh's expression do a complete one-eighty. It really was quite terrible how much it delighted them to give Shinrai pains, but she couldn't muster up any shame. He was such an easy target, after all. It was always more amusing to make prey of creatures who put on such airs of manful invulnerability.

That they kept running into the stallion was odd--Capital City was such a large place, after all--but she wasn't going to complain. Especially if Shinrai could lead her right back in to a profitable business. What she could do if she had a hand in a shipping firm--

She stopped that train of thought. No need to get ahead of herself. Bad business practice, that. She grinned widely at Minh.

"Come, darling," she said. "Let's go say hello to our dear, dear friend."

[Dark]

Minh was rather proud of herself for restraining the delightfully wicked cackle that bubbled up in her chest at the mere thought of harassing Shinrai once again—he was almost sure to hear it and immediately turn tail, and she wouldn’t want him having some sort of advantage. The man really was too much fun—and he made it so easy when he continued to insist on projecting that flimsy façade of stoic masculinity.

And running into him so often around the capital was rather auspicious, as it meant Minh could keep a close eye on him in order to watch for signs of the mutation and monitor any unexpected reactions to the gene therapy and/or any sudden onslaught of complications. She wasn’t overly worried about the latter, though—massive organ failure had only occurred in 7% of the test subjects.

“So, Mnemosyne—what shall we be hoping to gain from this interaction, besides the pleasure of seeing your amour?”

[Jaguara Katial]

Darrien looked at the equine and stared blankly for a second before answering his question. “It is called Hornby Lake Con…struct…ion…”[/b] his words trailed off as he noticed the two attractive females approach the three of them.

His gaze drifted over towards both of the females and his jaw dropped, causing his mouth to hang open. As attractive as the feline was, it was her yarrow companion that had kept his attention. Never in his life had he seen some one so delicate and elegant. Her coloration was like none he had ever seen before. All his life he had been surrounded by selkiens. He did not move, for how could he? He was plastered where he stood and he silently wondered if this was how Tuuli had felt when she had first seen and noticed him. He suddenly realized that he was staring and that his mouth was open. With the clicking sound of his teeth, he quickly closed it and looked at the ground embarrassed at his actions.

[Kari Muffin]

Rocky blinked at the sudden change in tone. He turned around curiously to inspect the two men he was traveling with.

Oh. That was a good thing to be distracted by. No wonder the canine sound so distant. Rocco cocked his head curiously. They were interesting creatures, but neither of them had that... quality that he looked for in a woman. A seven of diamonds for the Gardens and a lovely seven of clubs from his home town. Interesting indeed.

"Perhaps if the ladies are so distracting we should say our Hellos, unless you both have objections?" Rocky grinned. He could see the Jack was obviously uncomfortable, but he could only wonder why. What made these ladies tick? Herm? Oh, now he just had to find out the truth about it all. It was another grand experiment. His smile grew wider as he watched the women approach. Oh, look, there was no escaping this one.

What an interesting day.

[Bee]

Mnemosyne's eyes raked over the small group with cautious curiosity. They didn't look like anything threatening, really--she knew Shinrai better than that, and his companions looked relatively harmless. Relatively. The raccoon was a Corvistowne inhabitant (with wings, no less), by his coloring, and Mnem knew very well what kind of crazy they were capable of--and their crazy, period. His canine friend was staring at her with open-mouthed amazement; usually she found this reaction to her beauty tedious, but perhaps it was the canine's combination of pretty coloring and Selkie Lakes heftiness, but she found it rather--adorable and charming, here.

Given Minh's typical social ineptitude, Mnem took the initiative of introducing them. She offered them a curving, impish smile.

"Good day, boys," she said merrily. "I spotted an old friend among your number and thought I would say hello. Where are you all headed this lovely day?"

[Jaguara Katial]

As Darrien opened his mouth to reply to the yarrow female’s greeting it suddenly really occurred to him that the lovely female’s companion was black…and then two and two was placed together. He did not know what to do. His father had told him that a black cat was bad luck and there was only two ways to reverse the effects once he was face to face with one. He had his choices of spitting three times over his left shoulder or walking seven steps backwards. He knew that it would be rude of him to spit in from of the beautiful female and he certainly did not want to take a step away from her when he wanted to take a step closer to her.

“I…we…er…that is…”[/b] he cleared his throat as he gathered his thoughts and shoved the ones about the black cat away; maybe he did not have to do anything considering that one fact. She was not completely black maybe it would be okay. “I’m currently looking for my office in this city.” He said to her with more confidence and in his very thick selkien accent. “These gentlemen were helping me find my way.”[/b] He looked directly into her soft pink eyes. Eyes were the path to the soul and from what he could see; she was beautiful.

[Bee]

"And I'm sure they're doing a fine job," said Mnem diplomatically. The canine had a very strong accent, but Mnem didn't mind: she was good with languagues and dialects, and the little vocal quirk seemed to serve only to make him more darling.

He seemed terrified of Minh, too, which really wasn't terribly surprising, as most people had that reaction. The canine's seemed to go a bit beyond the pale, though; for a moment Mnem fancied he thought Minh to be some terrible and ancient evil with a capacity for neither pity nor happiness. Which was silly, really--Minh was a madwoman, but a relatively benign one, compared to some--but amusing.

"However, I'm looking for a certain place as well, and I think that if we pool our knowledge we can perhaps all find what we're looking for." She paused, thought for a moment, and then added: "Oh! How awfully rude of me. My name is Mnemosyne--but do feel free to call me Mnem--and this dear little kitty is my friend Minh."